Survey says: What PAR members are reporting

It’s no surprise that PAR standard forms are a valued service to our members. But did you know that a whopping 76 percent feel that it’s the most important service that PAR provides?

In our biennial member survey, we observed more members with greater involvement in the association, as well as more members assigning a higher value to the core services that PAR provides to our members.

Standard forms enable us to transact business to the advantage and protection of the public and our members. Starting in 2014, the PAR Standard Forms program was rolled into member dues. More recently, NAR has made basic zipForm access a member benefit, and many local associations and MLSs provide enhanced benefits as part of their local dues.

In addition to standards forms seeing a 16 percent increase in value from our last survey, five of six core services saw double-digit growth in the share of members who consider those services as beneficial to them as a Realtor®.

PAR has affiliations with 12 companies that offer perks and discounts for being a Pennsylvania Realtor®, and ZipForm Plus and Realtors Property Resource® stood out as the two ancillary services that members use most. Seventy-six percent of members reported using ZipForm Plus and 52 percent reported using RPR in the course of their business. Thirty-six percent of members reported using UPS, while 24 percent take advantage of discounts from Office Depot.

In social media, Facebook remains the top tool members use to expand their brand and attract new business. Seventy-one percent of members said they use Facebook at least once a week, while 12 percent use Twitter and 13 percent use Instagram. Be sure to join the PAR member-only Facebook group and follow us on Twitter to keep up with all the latest association news.

We also found that members are more likely to describe themselves as involved with PAR compared to the last member survey. There was a 5 percent bump in members who report being involved in PAR, and a 20 percent drop in members who say they’re not involved in the association. To see the share of very involved members increase nearly three times over two years ago is an encouraging sign for the growth of the association.

The survey was conducted by Keystone Analytics® from Aug. 1-11, 2017. A total of 1,115 members of the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors® took the survey. Congratulations to Bruno Pouget from the Greater Philadelphia Association and Anthony Matsell from the Schuylkill County Board, winners of $100 gift cards for taking the survey.

Click here to read the full summary of the survey.